Short-term Memory

Short-term memory (or "primary" or "active memory") is the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time. The duration of short-term memory (when rehearsal or active maintenance is prevented) is believed to be in the order of seconds. A commonly cited capacity is 7 ± 2 elements. In contrast, long-term memory indefinitely stores a seemingly unlimited amount of information.

Short-term memory should be distinguished from working memory, which refers to structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information (see details below)

Read more about Short-term Memory:  Existence of A Separate Store, Relationship With Working Memory, Duration of Short-term Memory, Capacity of Short-term Memory

Famous quotes containing the words short-term and/or memory:

    I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.
    Tom Stoppard (b. 1937)

    We find that even the parents who justify spanking to themselves are defensive and embarrassed about it....I suspect that deep in the memory of every parent are the feelings that had attended his own childhood spankings, the feelings of humiliation, of helplessness, of submission through fear. The parent who finds himself spanking his own child cannot dispel the ghosts of his own childhood.
    Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)